The Hidden Design of the Apple Airpod

Recommendable!

The 3D printer that crafts complex robotic organs in a single run

Amazing stuff!

Water Wars: Cooling The Data Centers

This headline is probably more about sensationalism than reality! However, the cooling requirements for ever more data centers around the world is a valid and major concern!

How clean does the water have to be?

How efficient is the recycling of the water in data centers? Or what is the leak/loss of water?

Can water be substituted by another abundant, harmless and cheap coolant?

One more reason why it so important to invest more money into e.g. superconductors, water desalination, nuclear fusion and so on then wasting tons of money on e.g. unreliable environmentally hazardous windmills!

"Water.  Data centres.  The continuous, pressing need to cool the latter, which houses servers to store and process data, with the former, which is becoming ever more precious in the climate crisis.  Hardly a good comingling of factors.  ..."

Water Wars: Cooling The Data Centers – OpEd – Eurasia Review

TJ-FlyingFish: An aerial aquatic drone

What the future of drones holds in store! This is at least the second such drone that has been developed!

P.S. I was unable to verify the original source of this news. The links provided in the source below are invalid.

"... When the aircraft is in flight, all four of the units are facing upwards and spinning their props at the higher of the two speeds. Once it lands on the water, the units rotate to face downward and then spin at the lower speed, pulling the drone beneath the surface. In order to move both vertically and horizontally once it's fully submerged, the drone adjusts the angle and thrust of each propulsion unit as needed. ...
scientists at Oakland University previously developed a flying/underwater-swimming quadcopter of their own, known as the Loon Copter. It lands on the water horizontally, then pumps water into its buoyancy chamber, causing it to tilt down to one side. The drone then moves through the water using its now-vertical propellers, moving up and down by pumping water in and out of its buoyancy chamber."

TJ-FlyingFish drone flies through the air and "swims" underwater While aerial drones can travel long distances quickly, aquatic drones can explore underwater environments. The TJ-FlyingFish offers the best of both worlds, as it's a flying quadcopter that is also able to make its way through the inky depths.

Toroidal propellers: A effective noise reduction and gain in efficiency in air and water

Good news! It is not really new and still too expensive for now.

"... Sharrow Marine has been getting frankly spectacular results from boat propellers that use toroidal loops instead of standard blades. After several years of development, the company has now tested its props against hundreds of standard propellers, and the difference is incredible. Sharrow's props simply don't create tip vortices – a major source of energy loss and a surprisingly large component in the overall noise of an outboard engine. ...
The drawback here is price; they cost US$4,999 a pop regardless of which model, where a regular propeller might go for closer to US$500. ..."

The gain in efficiency is ridiculous in the water at midrange RPMs, filling in a pronounced hole in a boat's acceleration curve and conserving huge amounts of energy

Toroidal propellers: A noise-killing game changer in air and water These strangely-shaped twisted-toroid propellers look like a revolutionary (sorry) advance for the aviation and marine sectors. Radically quieter than traditional propellers in both air and water, they're also showing some huge efficiency gains.

Toroidal propellers: a radically quieter and more efficient design that can boost fuel economy by 20% when swapped onto a marine motor

Mass-market military drones have changed the way wars are fought

Recommendable! Nice overview article!

"... Commercial technology makes the [Turkish] TB2 appealing for another reason: while the US-made Reaper drone costs $28 million, the TB2 only costs about $5 million. Since its development in 2014, the TB2 has shown up in conflicts in Azerbaijan, Libya, Ethiopia, and now Ukraine. The drone is so much more affordable than traditional weaponry that Lithuanians have run crowdfunding campaigns to help buy them for Ukrainian forces.

The TB2 is just one of several examples of commercial drone technology being used in combat. The same DJI Mavic quadcopters that help real estate agents survey property have been deployed in conflicts in Burkina Faso and the Donbas region of Ukraine. Other DJI drone models have been spotted in Syria since 2013, and kit-built drones, assembled from commercially available parts, have seen widespread use.

These cheap, good-enough drones that are free of export restrictions have given smaller nations the kind of air capabilities previously limited to great military powers. ..."

Mass-market military drones have changed the way wars are fought | MIT Technology Review The war in Ukraine has exposed that widely available, inexpensive drones are being used not just for targeted killings but for wholesale slaughter.

The Turkish military drone Bayraktar TB2

Very impressive! Turkey of all places?

Apparently, the Ukraine made best use of these military drones in their defense against the war of aggression by Putin the Terrible! Presumably, several dozens of these drones have been deployed by the Ukraine in this war.

"The Bayraktar TB2 is a medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations. It is manufactured by the Turkish company Baykar Makina Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş., primarily for the Turkish Armed Forces. The aircraft are monitored and controlled by an aircrew in a ground control station, including weapons employment. The development of the UAV has been largely credited to Selçuk Bayraktar, a former MIT graduate student.

By November 2021, the TB2 drone had completed 400,000 flight-hours globally. ..."

Some basic flight performance criteria & technical specifications: "

• 18,000 Feet Operational Altitude
• 27 Hours Maximum Airtime
• Fully Automatic Flight Control and 3 Redundant Autopilot System (Triple Redundant)
• Fully Automatic Landing and Take-off Feature Without Dependence on Ground Systems
• Navigation with Internal Sensor Fusion Without Dependency on GPS
• 25,000 Feet Max Altitude
  
• Communication Range <300 km
• Travel - Maximum Speed 70 knot - 120 knot
• Payload Capacity 150 kg
• Payload - ISR: Switchable EO/IR/LD or Multi-Purpose AESA Radar
• Payload - Munitions: 4 Laser Guided Smart Ammunition
"

BAYKAR Technology | Bayraktar TB2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baykar_Bayraktar_TB2

What were Bronze Age daggers used for? New analysis method has answer

Recommendable! This is about an amazing technique to show that a 3,000 year old metal instrument was used for animal butchering and meat carving in its time.

"Used widely throughout Europe during the Bronze Age including the Britain Isles, the functional use of copper-alloy daggers has long been debated by researchers but until recently there had not been a scientific method to analyze the metal [for organic residue]. ...
In their report published in Scientific Reports, the researchers said they used a special staining solution to enable the world’s first extraction of organic residues from ten copper-alloy daggers excavated in 2017 from Pragatto, a Bronze Age settlement site in Italy. ...

Traditionally, they have been viewed as ceremonial symbols of male identity and power because many daggers were found in warrior burials, but other researchers had maintained that the daggers had multiple uses both as tools, perhaps for ritual slaughter of animals, and as weapons.

According to the researchers, the new analysis method revealed scientifically for the first time how these objects were used, for what tasks, and on what materials, and it seems to have been for the slaughtering, butchering and carving of animal livestock for meat. ...

the project team developed a technique using a Picro-Sirius Red (PSR) solution which is used to stain muscle and collagen fibers. Collagen is a fiber-like protein in the body which is used to make connective tissue.

The residues highlighted by the solution were then observed under optical, digital and scanning electron microscopes, which allowed the team to identify micro-residues of collagen and associated bone, muscle and bundle tendon fibers.

The researchers believe these findings suggest the daggers had indeed come into contact with multiple animal tissues and were used to process a variety of animal carcasses. The daggers seem to have been used for slaughtering of livestock, butchering carcasses and carving the meat from the bone, the researchers concluded. ..."

From the abstract:

"The article discusses results of organic residue analysis performed on ten copper-alloy daggers from Bronze Age Pragatto, Italy, c.1550–1250 BCE. Metal daggers are widespread in Chalcolithic and Bronze Age Europe, yet their social and practical roles are still hotly debated. Are they symbolic or functional? Are they tools or weapons? How were they used? For what tasks and on what materials? The research addresses these questions through a novel application of biochemical staining and SEM–EDX analysis. The method has proved successful in extracting and identifying animal residues located on cutting edges including bone, muscle, and tendons. These are interpreted as evidence of prehistoric carcass butchering and carving. Further residues were observed on blade faces and hafting plates or tangs; these are interpreted as remnants of bone handles and sheaths, the latter made of either wood fibers or processed hide and fur. The readings proposed in the article are validated by original experiments with replica daggers, as detailed in the Supplementary Materials. The analysis and experiments shed new light on Bronze Age metal daggers, showing that they were fully functional tools (and perhaps tool-weapons) primarily utilized for the processing of animal carcasses. This original research result contributes significant knowledge towards interpreting an under-studied, yet socially salient, prehistoric metal artifact."

What were Bronze Age daggers used for? New analysis method has answer - The Jerusalem Post Long thought by many to have been used as a symbol of male identity and power, turns out they were used for something more mundane.

Organic residue analysis reveals the function of bronze age metal daggers (open access)

The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations in London 1851

One of those major, monumental events in history that had long lasting positive impact and consequences on humanity!

"... Six million people—equivalent to a third of the entire population of Britain at the time—visited the Great Exhibition. ...
The official descriptive and illustrated catalogue of the event lists exhibitors not only from throughout Britain but also from its 'Colonies and Dependencies' and 44 'Foreign States' in Europe and the Americas. Numbering 13,000 in total, the exhibits included a Jacquard loom, an envelope machine, kitchen appliances, steel-making displays and a reaping machine that was sent from the United States ..."

"... The exhibits included almost every marvel of the Victorian age, including pottery, porcelain, ironwork, furniture, perfumes, pianos, firearms, fabrics, steam hammers, hydraulic presses and even the odd house or two. ..."

P.S. Unfortunately, I was not able to quickly find a great article on this exhibit on the Internet.

Great Exhibition - Wikipedia

The Great Exhibition 1851

John Deere Is Facing a Farmer Revolt

Recommendable! This is about the farmer's right to repair their own equipment!

This Modern Day easy to use Miriam's Well From Israeli Startup Alumor Will Provide Cheap, & Clean Water For the Developing World

I thought, this is a fitting Christmas Story! Merry Christmas 2021!

"... Figures from World Health Organization (WHO) in 2017 suggest 2.1 billion people lack drinking water, 1.4 billion of which need an efficient and sustainable solution, like a household water treatment device, to purify their water to the point of use. The WHO states for those families that need these household water treatment systems, the systems need to be cheap and sterilize water to a high level. The water purification tech should ensure that all bacteria and viruses are killed.
Present solutions are either costly, ineffective, or just simply slow and cumbersome to use ..."

"The Miriam’s Well is a household device and is designed to operate without need for running water, electricity grid, or maintenance. The machine cleans dirty polluted water such that it is ready for drinking. The technology is a two stage process incorporating advanced UV-C technology."

"... Miriam’s Well is meant to be used in a village setting where one person would house the product and residents would come to a specific location for clean water. The village design would be sold for about $50 as a social good (not for profit) The company is currently in contact with various NGOs and governments that will be partners in distribution. ..."

This Modern Day Miriam's Well From Israeli Startup Alumor Will Provide Clean Water For The Masses

Miriam’s Well

Watch Waymo’s Self-Driving Taxis Put Urban Terrain to the Test

Recommendable! In combination with e.g. more home office work this has the potential to reduce individual car ownership significantly in the near future.

Rauchmelder hört mit: Warnung der Bundesnetzagentur

Sind wir umgeben von Spionen?

Rauchmelder hört mit: Warnung der Bundesnetzagentur Harmlos wirkende Spielzeuge und Haushaltsgeräte haben oft Hintertüren. Verbraucher sollten auf verborgene Kameras und Mikros achten. 4600 Produkte wurden dieses Jahr schon aus dem Verkehr gezogen.

World’s first autonomous rig drills first well in Permian Basin

Good news!

Could robots replace roughnecks? World’s first autonomous rig drills first well in Permian Basin (behind paywall)

The ancient 'computer' from about 100 BC that simply shouldn't exist

Very recommendable! I remember having learnt about this device (Antikythera mechanism) many years ago.

Too bad, apparently we have not yet discovered another device like it.

Stretchy electronics go wireless

Recommendable! Seems to be a winning combination! Stretch me not! :-)

Iodine ion drive propels satellite in space for the first time by ThrustMe

Good news! Brought to you by ThrustMe founded in 2017, a "tech company that designs miniature aerospace thrusters for small satellites" (Source)! 😄

"Iodine could one day propel and position constellations of mini-satellites following the first test of an iodine-based thruster in space. The system offers a cheaper, more versatile and more efficient propellant solution for manoeuvring satellites than existing electric thruster technologies, which largely rely on xenon.

‘Iodine is a game-changing propellant and our results show for the first time that it is not only a viable replacement for xenon, but that it also gives enhanced performance,’ says Trevor Lafleur, principal engineer at ThrustMe, the French company behind the technology. ..."

Iodine ion drive propels satellite in space for the first time | Research | Chemistry World (behind paywall) Halogen could provide a cheaper, more efficient alternative to xenon

How India Became the New Hope for Tech Investors

Recommendable! A sleeping giant wakes up! Note how many women are involved!

Startups, NASA pursuing supersonic commercial flight

Recommendable!

The global escalator racket

Escalators were invented about 120 years ago! A few companies, an oligopol, dominate the global escalator market from sales to repair and maintenance.

We urgently need someone to apply some creative destruction in this market! Where is the Jeff Bezo's or Elon Musk?

It is totally astounding that escalators are still such complicated and fragile devices. The technicians that repair and maintain escalators are almost like high priests. When you ask them when an out of order escalator will be operating again, they give you usually a cryptic or an oracle like answer.

How many escalator parts are standardized? Is there even a market for second hand escalators? Etc.

Government is probably to blame too. Too many safety and other burdensome  regulations!